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Global alert
Many associate terrorism with irrational behavior and believe only lunatics could perpetuate such horrific acts. Global Alert debunks this myth by anatomizing the rationale behind modern terrorism. It draws a distinct picture of its root and instrumental causes and plots the different stages of a terrorist attack, from indoctrination and recruitment to planning, preparation, and launch. Global Alert also exposes the measured exploitation of democratic institutions by terrorists to further their goals. Despite its strong capabilities and extensive resources, the modern liberal-democratic state is nevertheless subject to the rules of war, which partially restrict the state's ability to operate and maneuver. Boaz Ganor shows how terrorist organizations exploit these values to paralyze or neutralize the states they oppose. In outlining this new \"hybrid\" terrorist organization and its activity in both the military–terrorist arena and the political–welfare arena, Ganor advances an international doctrine for governing military operations between state and nonstate actors as part of a new type of armed conflict termed \"multidimensional warfare.\"
eBook
Understanding the Motivations of “Lone Wolf” Terrorists
The phenomenon of “lone wolf ” terrorism, which has increasingly attracted the attention of scholars, consists of terror attacks perpetrated without the operational involvement of terrorist organizations in initiating, planning, or executing the attack. This phenomenon lacks a clear center of gravity directing the actions of “lone wolf ” terrorists; and as such, it is crucial to understand the system of motivations influencing independent assailants to perpetrate attacks. This article is based on extensive studies conducted on the motivations of “lone wolf ” terrorists by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya. It seeks to contribute to the literature on the topic by proposing a new model. The “Bathtub Model” suggests that the process of the formation of the “lone wolf’s” decision to perpetrate an attack can be akin to a container of water (such as a bath), which would be filled up by various sources of water, each representing groups and subgroups of motivations. The upper threshold of the “bathtub” model represents therefore the maximal level of the “lone wolf’s” ability to contain his motivations, frustrations, and emotions.
Journal Article
Israel’s Policy in Extortionist Terror Attacks (Abduction and Hostage Barricade Situations)
One of the most challenging type of terror incidents is that of an extortionist attack, such as hostage-taking and kidnappings. Extortion attacks require governments to evaluate a series of options for handling the incident, ranging from giving in to all of the terrorists’ demands, to full-blown military-rescue operations. Since the 1970s, Israel has handled a number of extortionist attacks, using the Rabin Doctrine, which advocates rescue operations as a means of handling the attacks. This policy led to a shift in the kind of attacks being perpetrated against Israelis, with a shift from hostage-taking attacks to abductions. During extortionist attacks, decision-makers are faced with the dilemma of how to deter future terror attacks, while ensuring the safe release of hostages. This article illustrates the dilemmas that decision makers face during extortionist attacks, and will highlight the options that decisions makers have, using Israel’s experience as a case study
Journal Article
Four Questions on ISIS
During the past year, the Islamic State (IS) has taken control of extensive areas of the Middle East. Its military achievements, extreme and historically unprecedented barbarism, success in recruiting thousands of young people from around the world to its ranks in Iraq and Syria, its store of financial resources and, above all, its skilled use of social and other media to publicize its terrorist acts and spread its propaganda, have all made IS an increasing and alarming threat to global security.
Although experts on terrorism, security officials and decision makers worldwide concur that IS poses an unparalleled threat, they disagree about the answers to the following four key questions: What is the nature of the Islamic State?; Are the doctrines of the Islamic State an innovation?; What are the Islamic State’s aspirations? and, What is the Islamic State’s strategic situation? How we answer these four questions will affect not only our understanding of the nature, aims and activities of the Islamic State; it will also dictate what counter-strategy should be implemented in order to stop, if not trounce, the Islamic State.
Journal Article
Hypermedia Seduction for Terrorist Recruiting
The primary objective of the authors of this publication is to understand the efficacy of terrorists' use of the Internet and the scope of this activity, and to analyze the content, graphics and source code. Topics covered include the use of the Internet for psychological warfare in general and for terrorist \"narrow-casting\" to specific audiences. The discussion focused in particular on the Global Jihad. Terrorist websites were analyzed in terms of common graphical and linguistic motifs. Different methodologies for targeting different audiences were discussed, including the increasing outreach on the part of extremist groups to young children in both Muslim countries and the West. Readers can learn how online communities evolve, and how membership in an online community can promote isolation and radicalization, particularly among immigrant societies. The psychological side of these communities was also dealt with, including extremists' manipulation of the younger members of immigrant communities. The ultimate goal of this publication is not only to evaluate the effectiveness of terrorist propaganda on the web and its influence on the target audience, but to recommend practical steps that can be taken to counter this effectiveness. This includes the exploitation of vulnerabilities resulting from jihadists' behavior online, and the analysis of jihadist forums and websites for intelligence gathering.
eBook
INTRODUCTION TO MULTIDIMENSIONAL WARFARE
Terrorism is a dynamic, mutable phenomenon. It adapts to changes in the abilities and limitations of terrorist organizations, as well as to changes in their interests and motivations and those of their patrons and benefactors. A terrorist organization is a learning organization.¹ In order to survive, on the one hand, and realize its goals, on the other, it must “study” both itself and its enemy country. In looking inward at itself and its community of origin, the terrorist organization must recognize its advantages and disadvantages, identify the obstacles confronting it, and set short- and long-term goals. It must be very
Book Chapter
THE RATIONALE OF MODERN ISLAMIST TERRORISM
Understanding the rationale of modern terrorist organizations in general, and of radical Islamic terrorist groups in particular, provides a key to understanding their modi operandi, tactics, and strategy, and therefore to formulating an approach to combating them. Yet in responding to modern terrorism, Western decision makers often make ineffective and sometimes dangerous policy decisions, which can largely be attributed to a fundamentally misguided and mistaken evaluation of the rationale behind terrorist activities. Decision makers are often guilty of two common, albeit contradictory, errors in judgment.
The first of these errors is the misconception that terrorists themselves are irrational actors—“crazy
Book Chapter
THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF AN ISLAMIST TERRORIST ORGANIZATION’S RATIONALE
As noted in chapter 7, the operational strategy of any given terrorist organization and the scope and characteristics of its terrorist attacks are an outgrowth of its core ideology and, more specifically, its root goals and instrumental goals, in concert with its strategic interests. Nevertheless, the specific decision to conduct a terrorist attack can be understood only by also analyzing the practical and operational considerations underlying it.
The operational strategy of any terrorist organization governs not only whether or not it will launch a terrorist attack or guerrilla campaign, but also the structure and characteristics of the planned attack. These
Book Chapter